Jared Kushner speaks in public. And Washington takes notice.
WASHINGTON — Jared Kushner spoke in public on Monday. And that alone counted as news.
In a White House full of loud voices, the powerful senior adviser and son-in-law to President Donald Trump tends to keep his mouth shut. He shuns televised interviews, avoids public speeches and rarely addresses a meeting when cameras are rolling, preferring to work behind the scenes.
So Washington took notice Monday when Kushner presided over a White House meeting of technology executives and actually took the microphone. It took a few moments for Kushner to get the attention of the dozens of suited executives gathered in an ornate room at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. But eventually the room quieted and he could finally be heard.
The slim, stylish former real estate executive addressed the crowd in a soft but confident tenor, revealing the New York influences around his vowels. He pledged that “by modernizing these systems we will meaningfully improve the lives of tens of millions of Americans.”